I explored my tree for unusual occupations, and found a somewhat famous minister in my ancestry.
Son of Justice Samuel Sewall of Boston, Joseph Sewall, my 6th great-grandfather, was the fourth minister of Old South Church in Boston, serving from 1713 until his death in 1769. [Church website and Wikipedia]
Old South Church is one of the older religious communities in the United States. It was organized by Congregationalist dissenters from Boston's First Church and was known as the Third Church (to distinguish it from the First and Second Congregational Churches in the city). The Third Church's congregation met first in their Cedar Meeting House (1670), then at the Old South Meeting House (1729) at the corner of Washington and Milk Streets in Boston.
The following image, in the public domain, is a John Smibert (1688-1751) oil on canvas painting done about 1735 of the Reverend Joseph Sewall. Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery.
Son of Justice Samuel Sewall and his wife, Hannah Hull, Joseph was born at Boston on August 15, 1688, and baptized at the Old South Church on August 19, 1688. He was his parents' eighth child and sixth son. He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1707 and completing his second degree in 1710.
He was elected as associate minister of Old South in 1712 and ordained in September of 1713. About six weeks later, he married Elizabeth Walley, daughter of Hon. John Walley and Sarah Blossom. (Justice John Walley was an associate of Joseph's father, Samuel, for many years.) He and Elizabeth had two children; only one survived infancy: Samuel, born in 1715.
He was offered the presidency of Harvard College, which he declined (he wanted to remain in Boston), but did serve as a fellow of the college from 1728 to 1765.
He served as minister at Old South for 56 years, from 1713 until his death in 1769. He baptized so many children that when I perform a search for his name in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register at AmericanAncestors.org, there are thousands of results.
Only three of his father's 14 children outlived him, and Joseph outlived all his siblings. He died at Boston on June 27, 1769 and two days later, was buried at the Granary Burying Ground in Boston. See his FindAGrave memorial, where there is a brief biography, though no gravestone photo. An obituary in the Boston Post-Boy reports that "Scarce any one ever passed through life with a more unblemished character, or performed its various duties with more universal esteem."
Sources include:
Hamilton Andrews Hill, "The Rev. Joseph Sewall: His Youth and Early Manhood," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 46 (1896): 3-10; digital images, American Ancestors (http://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 11 September 2018).
Obituary, Joseph Sewall, Boston Post-Boy, 3 July 1769, issue 393, p. 2; digital image, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 11 September 2018).
"Old South Church," Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_South_Church : accessed 11 September 2018).
"Old South Meeting House," Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_South_Meeting_House : accessed 11 September 2018).
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My descent from Reverend Joseph Sewall is as follows. His third great-grandson, Samuel Sewall Greeley, married his fourth great-granddaughter, Eliza May Wells.
Joseph Sewall
|
Samuel Sewall
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Dorothy Sewall
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Louisa May (sister of Elizabeth Sewall May)
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Samuel Sewall Greeley (married Eliza May
Wells)
|
Ethel May Greeley
|
Lowell Townsend Copeland
|
my mother
|
my mother
|
me
Second line:
Joseph Sewall
|
Samuel Sewall
|
Dorothy Sewall
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Elizabeth Sewall May (sister of Louisa May)
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Elizabeth Sewall Willis
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Eliza May Wells (married Samuel Sewall Greeley)
|
Ethel May Greeley, see above
Samuel Sewall Greeley and Eliza May Wells were first cousins once removed.
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